President Clinton

* Re “Clinton Unveils Budget to Cut Deficit, Taxes,” March 20:

I watched President Clinton on TV state that his 1997 budget will reform welfare and reduce spending. Then I read that Clinton is proposing a $107-billion tax cut in his 1997 budget. I heard him say that before, during the 1992 campaign.

Do you remember what happened after he was elected? He raised taxes! And neither did he reform welfare or reduce spending.

ANTHONY B. SAN JOSE

Torrance

* John J. Pitney Jr. (Commentary, March 15) says of President Clinton that “he has an ethics problem.”

Is it that he tried marijuana but claims he didn’t inhale (I smoked a pipe when I was young, and I didn’t inhale)? Is it his protest of the Vietnam War (clearly, history has vindicated those who did)? Is it his attempt to make a few bucks in real estate (how many people living on a $35,000 salary--or any other salary--would look at investment in real estate as “greedy,” as Clinton’s detractors claim)? Perhaps it is his willingness to change his position when new facts are presented which warrant a change (I look upon that trait as a very positive one--the Republicans could use a bit of that ethics problem).

Get real, Mr. Pitney. The reason Clinton has an ethics problem is that the Republicans keep saying he does and the press keeps quoting them. B.J. MITCHELL

Hermosa Beach

* If the newspaper and television media would be honest with the American people just once, they would have to admit that President Clinton’s antiterrorism summit (March 14) was strictly for political reasons--the reelection of Shimon Peres in Israel and Clinton in the United States.

HARRY JACOBSON